Siri

Siri and Your Alarm

Have you ever used Siri to set the alarm clock on your iPhone or iPad for a wake up call in the morning? Well, I hadn't either. No particular reason except I just never think of using Siri -- I just do it manually. After reading the following blog from the Kibbles & Bytes Newsletter #1049, I decided to give it a try, and it worked! 

As the article mentions, every time you do this a new alarm setting will be added to the list. To keep these from building up, swipe the alarm from right to left and tap delete. Pretty slick. Give it a try.

Jim Hamm

 

"y iPhone is the best alarm clock that I have ever had. I don’t have to hit a button 37 times to get to the right minutes in the hour I want an alarm to go off. I can have multiple alarm times set, I can program weekday alarms, weekend alarms and everything in between. One of my favorite features is that I can set any sound I want for my alarm. I prefer to wake up to music over a buzzing sound. Even my Sonos speaker can be programmed to turn on via an alarm! OK, so you get it now, my iPhone is quite possibly the handiest gadget I have ever owned. A few taps and my alarm is ready, but does it get even easier than that? It sure does!

 

Siri can actually set your alarms for you in one quick step. Sorry old alarm clock but I don’t see a space for you ever opening up again on my night stand. Plus, you can use alarms like you might reminders or calendar events. Consider setting an alarm to remind you about meeting someone for lunch or perhaps that extra motivation to remind you you should be exercising. Here are some tips for using Siri to set your alarms.

You can say, “Hey Siri, set an alarm for 7 AM” or even “Hey Siri, wake me up tomorrow at 8:45 AM.” When you do that, though, Siri creates a new alarm each time with whatever sound you last chose. Make a habit of that command, and you’ll end up with hundreds of alarms in Clock > Alarm, all of which will have been used only once. (Delete one by swiping over it from right to left and then tapping Delete.) There’s a better way—follow these steps:

  1. In Clock > Alarm, tap the + button in the upper-right corner to create a new alarm.
  2. Tap Label, and enter a name for your alarm, like Wake Me Up or Morning Walk. Avoid words like alarm or clock in the name, since they tend to confuse Siri.
  3. Tap Sound and pick your desired sound, and enable the Snooze button if you wish.
  4. Tap Save in the upper-right corner.

Notice in these steps I didn’t bother to set a time, that is because you’re going to have Siri do that for you. Now all you need to say to set your alarm, say the one to wake you up with, “Hey Siri, change wake me up to 8 am.”

If you said things correctly and clearly you should hear Siri respond with a confirmation like “ok, I changed your wake me up alarm to 8 am” or you can go into Clock > Alarm and you should see the change there. "

Why Your Smartphone Records Everything You Say to It

        A friend sent this to us, and it deserves our attention.  The article starts out, "After controversy earlier this month over televisions recording owners and sending the clips to third parties, smartphone owners are now discovering that companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft are also recording voice commands and storing them for up to two years."  This article from the UK dated 2-25-15 also declares, ". . . and you agreed to it via the terms and conditions."
See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11434754/Why-your-smartphone-records-everything-you-say-to-it.html   and notice the comments that are posted.  

Using Siri

        "For those of us with iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, we've had access to Siri for a long time but we probably rarely use it," Art Gorski begins.  He explains, "I've found that when I'm in the supermarket and I need 2 cups of something for a recipe but the item lists its size in grams, I can just ask Siri 'How many grams in 2 cups?'  Cool."
        "There's a gazillion useful things like this that Siri can do, but how do you figure out what they are without a lot of annoying trial and error? Did you know that you can use Siri to voice dictate an email or a text document?"
         And Art sends this helpful link:  "Here's a great website with tons of tutorials worth exploring: http://www.siriuserguide.com "

Ideas and Shortcuts

  Jim Hamm presented some helpful tips to the AMUG Senior SIG today, and shares these links with us. 

    more from Lifehacker:  http://lifehacker.com/tag/101
9) (item obsolete - admin)
10) 50 Best Mac Tips: http://www.techradar.com/